HDTV

[AdamW]

Seeing as High-Definition TV is coming to the UK soon via Sky (well, they have made various press releases about it) I thought I would offer the following link, containing a load of HD videos made with the Microsoft WMV codec.

Of course, this is a codec that has been accepted to the upcoming HD-DVD format too.

The files are very large, roughly 1 megabyte per second of video, so take a while to download unless you are on a corporate or university network. They also require a lot of space to store!

The videos are here

I watched the IMAX Amazon one, in 1080. The quality was amazing. I could see a few artefacts but they were very minor and you wouldn't notice it sitting back watching it on TV. Also seeing as my computer screen doesn't run at the native resolution of the video there would be some artefacts caused by that. All in all, very promising!

If anyone can play these in native resolution and/or on a plasma, let us know how they look!

 

[kendor]

stand by to see all the Tape joints/ repairs in Scenery

 

[ninebob]

Adam,

We already know that my processor is a shade quicker than yours, but also that your video card (and memory) are much superior to mine.

I tried to play the same clip as you with Windows Media Player 10, it paused every few seconds and was generally jerky.

I went to the divX website and downloaded the latest. Playing it back through DivX's own player it was very good, but even with the new plug-in I couldn't get it any better through Windows Media. Any suggestions?

 

[AdamW]

Well, it is in "Windows Media 9", I played it through WM10 player.

Only other thing I can think is if your resolution was significantly different to the 1440x1080 of the video file (yes, a 4:3 resolution... why do they bother with non-widescreen HDTV?!)

I tried setting my desktop to 1440x1080, but my rather ancient monitor sounded in pain and I can't really afford to replace it just now so switched back pretty damn sharpish!

 

[AdamW]

Just tried playing one of those clips again and opening task manager. I currently have a few applications running in the background, and am streaming some videos from this machine across the network. When I play one of those HD videos I am getting CPU usage in the 90% region, spiking very close to 100%. Which suggests that I am not far off bottom CPU spec to watch them at the best of times.

Perhaps it will be necessary to close anything non-essential whilst watching! If you have lots on in the background, or haven't rebooted in a week your system may be getting pi**ed off with it all.

 

[2scoops0406]

I feel a new graphics card coming on my GeForce 3 couldn't get close

Then again, my monitor would probably suffer a coronary too

 

[2scoops0406]

I like the look of these

http://www.nvidia.com/page/qfx_uhe.html

but you'd need a seperate TV in card. Also the price tag of about £1800.00 is a bit off putting

 

[AdamW]

Plus you know that a more powerful home computer product will cost £300 in a year, and a console that powerful will cost £200 in 2 years!

Mine is just an nVidia FX5200, cost me £55, was a real budget card even a year or two back when I got it. Does me alright with games, but I really can't be a**ed to spend £300 on the latest greatest thing.

 

[AdamW]

How long until proper photo-realistic graphics I wonder?

Of course you could end up with motion sickness problems!

 

[kendor]

makes you wonder if the technology is getting to the limits of our sensory perception and that any further advance will mean no gain in our enjoyment of the product and just an excuse for manufacturers to make the gadget freaks to part with more cash?

 

[AdamW]

makes you wonder if the technology is getting to the limits of our sensory perception and that any further advance will mean no gain in our enjoyment of the product and just an excuse for manufacturers to make the gadget freaks to part with more cash?

If they've got the gadgets, I've got the cash!

Little steps, each step brings us closer to having one of those sweet holodeck things off Star Trek.

 

[kendor]

you must have come across that feeling that " i spent all that money and for what?" where you spend a lot of money for Little or no benefit Software seems to fit into this category.

 

[GRC]

Surely there's only an advantage to HDTV broadcasting if the programmes are actually made in HD?

Considering that 90% (exactly) of Sky's flagship channel, Sky One, consists of repeats of the various Star Trek, Buffy, Angel, Simpsons franchises from anywhere between the early 90s and more recent times, there won't be much advantage gained here.

Besides which, there's a considerable groundswell of opinion (well, mine anyway) that the picture quality of programmes made in the 1970s exceeds that of the current broadcasting output. You just need to put a repeat of 'The Good Life' up against the more recent 'My Family' to see this.

Regards, Graham

 

[kendor]

You are correct GRC about the quality both picture and content of programmes these days compared to the past, speaking especially about the BBC due to an unfathomable exercise in down scaling under the disguise of a backdoor streamlining called "Producer Choice" most of the skilled technicians and creative people who learnt their skills over decades working for the "Old BBC" have gone either through redundancy or retirement the ones left have had the stuffing knocked out of them so much by the so called management and accountants there that morale is at an all time low and most couldn't be Ars*d about the quality of what goes out these days,also the BBC employs cheap labour in the form of unskilled people doing the jobs that skilled people did before and so of course the quality has dropped accordingly.

 

[ZenStalinist]

I find a lot of programmes are too dark now. Probably the tendence for minimal lighting. On one hand more realistic, but only if in a darkened room. In the days of the good life, they used the old tube cameras, and they used to flood everything with light, only way to get the fine details noticed. Plus the BBC used to be fanatical about picture composition. They had a set of rules on how to adjust the picture, and what you should be seeing in the 'green window' (oscilloscope, basically). Used to be done as more of a science than an art. There's a lot less detail in The Good Life than my family, thanks to those tube cameras, which have less resolution than the CCD cameras used today. Maybe you just like the warm, bright look of the picture. It does seem that while CCDs need less light to 'drive' them, reaching a bright white still needs a lot of light. Though I think sometimes adjustments are a little lacking now. Ultimately though it's down more to skill and taste than anything else. The quality of most new television is technically superior to that of the 70s.